Differences Between Real Estate Agents and Cash Buyers in Chicago

If you are planning to selling your house, you will likely find people that can help in your situation. Some will be agents and others are cash buyers. They will help in different ways for you to sell your house. In order for you to choose what is best fit for you, here are the things real estate estate agents and cash buyers apart.

List vs. Buy

The easiest way to tell real estate agents from cash buyers is to ask what is their strategies to sell a house. Real estate agents typically list the house while cash buyers buy it. A real estate agent will list your house on a listing service and they will try to find a buyer. They might need to show it to several people in order to find one buyer. A cash buyer is not going to list your house, rather they will buy house from you directly.

Commission vs. No Commission

An agent makes their money when they find a buyer and then you have to pay them their agent's commissions on the house which could be somewhere around 6% of the sale price. So if the sale price is $100,000, the agent will received a commission worth $6,000. 

An investor is not listing your house so there aren't any commissions. That is because an investor will make money by either fixing up the house and reselling it or renting the house to a tenant so they can make money in a different style.

Time to Sell

An agent would not know because they have to find a buyer first. In some cases, it will take 3-12 months they will show your house to potential buyers. But if you sell your house to a cash buyer, they will know exactly how long it will take to buy your house since they are the ones who will buy it. They will have an exact timeline on which date they will buy your house.